Jamal captures 1500m title in Guangzhou - Asian Games, Day 3
24.11.2010 World
Guangzhou, China - World champion Maryam Yusuf Jamal lived up to her stature, winning the 1500me in the Asian Games athletics championships on Tuesday (23).
Championship races are invariably run to win medals and not to post records and Jamal could not have been found wanting in her effort to enlarge her adopted country’s medals tally.
“I am here just to win. I controlled myself at first but it wasn’t easy,” she said, probably hinting at the fact that she had to hold herself back in an effort to keep the pace down for a comfortable finish. She crossed the line in 4:08.22 to win by more than a full second.
Teammate Mimi Belete set the pace for Jamal, and the two looked to be cruising along merrily on the final back straight towards what could have been a gold-silver finish. Jamal pulled away about 100 metres from the finish, but Vietnamese Truong Thanh Hang came from behind on the home straight to pip Belete at the post. The Vietnamese was overjoyed.
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